This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

‘Modernize labour relations:’ film industry workers to province

VANCOUVER—As B.C. workplaces shift toward a greater reliance on short-term and contract work, labour advocates are pushing for modernization of the laws governing the relationship between employers and workers.

A major theme of ongoing consultations for a provincial review of the Labour Relations Code, the first since 2003, has been whether the law needs updates to allow B.C.’s many contract and “gig” workers to get union representation. Jobs in the creative industries in particular, which include film and game development and are on the rise in B.C., are particularly likely to be short term or contract.

“It’s now currently 2018, last I checked, and everything’s changed in our world, and business is conducted every day on a smartphone,” said Phil Klapwyk, business representative of International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts local 891, which represents over 8,000 motion picture workers in B.C. and the Yukon. “People should be able to register their desire for representation through an online mechanism.”

Klapwyk said workers in the film industry regularly take jobs on short productions lasting no more than 20 days. But the rules surrounding unionization set out in the code require an in-person vote that’s nearly impossible to arrange in that length of time.

“The workers on those productions should have the same right to representation,” as other B.C. employees, he said. “But the timeline for seeking that representation ... is very difficult.”

IATSE recommended to the panel that voting process for unionization, currently done by secret ballot, should either be nixed altogether in favour of a sign-up process, or expedited. Modern technology, he said, should also be brought in to the process.

Employers take a different stance on the pressures of changing workplaces. A joint submission to the review panel by the B.C. Chamber of Commerce and 12 other business groups advocated that “balance” of business and labour interests in the current code be maintained.

“We want the panel to operate with the assumption that the economic activity going forward is not going to be the status quo,” said Dan Baxter, director of policy development for the B.C. Chamber of Commerce. Businesses, he said, are already facing uncertainty surrounding the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement, taxes and the future of the Kinder Morgan pipeline project.

YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN...

“Changes in the labour code could add to that uncertainty,” he said.

Changing jobs and taking on contracts, Klapwyk said, is a mainstay of creative industries, which comprise a larger portion of B.C.’s economy than in any other province. “We flourish in the B.C. economy because the people we represent embrace the challenges that it offers,” he said.

Still, irregular production schedules can complicate employer/worker relationships. Producers often have distinct corporate identities for each production, which means that if the staff of one production decide to unionize, that decision would not necessarily be valid for a new production by the same parent company.

That makes it difficult for employees to bargain for supports such as health benefits. “Primarily what employees want is to have a voice,” he said.

Labour advocates beyond the film industry are also hoping an updated Labour Relations Code comes out of the review process.

Get more of today's top stories in your inbox

Find everything you need to know about what's happening in Vancouver in our Morning Headlines newsletter.

YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN...

Irene Lanzinger, president of the BC Federation of Labour, which represents about 500,000 workers throughout the province, said employers are increasingly using contracts — partly to avoid unionization — in the hospitality and maintenance industries and beyond.

“There are all kinds of benefits to unionization,” she said. “How do we modernize the code to address the way work is changing?”

More Vancouver

Top Stories

More from The Star & Partners

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com